It seemed like we would never get our newest child.

The mounds of paperwork.  The intense home studies, physical (and psychological) examinations/tests, and countless interviews from the adoption agency.  The background checks, to make sure that we were "suitalble" parents.

Then we got the call from the agency, the call that would change our lives as we knew it.  We were getting a little girl from Haiti.  She was nearly six years old.  Her name was Marie and spoke only Creole French.

The whole process took over a year.  Marie was four, nearly five, when the process began: she was now nearing the age of six.  Marie would be six in just a few days.  She had apparently grown so much since we saw her first picture, but she still had that same sad, lost look in her big, chocolate-brown eyes.  Only six in a few days, and already she had lost so much back in her native Haiti, incluyding her family and several of her friends at the orphangage she had been staying at until she and the surviving children were moved to another.

We were going to journey to Haiti to pick up our daughter.  We were understandably excited, not to mention, scared.  What if she didn't like us?  What would she do when she came to a country where French wasn't regularly spoken?  How would she communicate?  Would people accept her because she had been born with only one arm?  Or would they make fun of her?

Questions like this (and many others) ricocheted through our heads as we continued to pack for our trip to Haiti.  We knew it would be hot there, so we packed the approapriate clothing, in addition to toys and other goodies.  

Both Brad (my husband) and myself were granted several months of personal times from our jobs so we could do this.   We would get paid during the time we were off, so there was no worry about money not coming in when we needed it the most.  

In addition to that, we had to get the house ready for our new child and try to get our other children used to the fact that they were to gain a new sister.  

I only hope that we can be the best parents Marie ever had.  We have already told her that we loved her and couldn't wait until she came here to America.  We also told her that we couldn't wait to come to Haiti and meet her in person.  

~To be continued.~